Steroids Part II.

It’s Time To Let Go of the PED Crusade
(Part I. of this series is located below or you can click on the tab located to the right).


The simple fact is: some athletes in all major professional sports used/are using illegal means to improve their level of play. Everyone knows it. We’ve had it smashed into our heads for the past few years. Heck, even during McGwire’s monumental run in ’98 he faced questions about the Andro supplement found in his locker. This is old, insignificant news. Many of our stars are tarnished, some, perhaps, unfairly.

Major League Baseball would lead us to believe this is the single greatest cheating scandal to befall any sport and has arranged for a special investigator to unearth all of the sordid details (The Mitchell Investigation). How does this help us move forward? This report will tramp out a litany of shipping documents, eyewitness accounts, and other forms of evidence that provide a means for dragging certain players through the mud of being associated with Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). This report will solve nothing. Instead, the Mitchell Investigation will merely serve as a way for MLB to point the finger at problematic individuals without understanding the institutionalized cancer the problem has become.

The solution is simple. MLB and the Players’ Union must forget the past and focus on the future. To do this, both sides must agree to adhere to the most stringent of testing procedures, as they become available. Blood for proper HGH testing should be stored. Random, frequent testing of all players must become standard, accepted practice. Amnesty should be given to all players up to this date for any past transgressions with PEDs. Most importantly, Major League Baseball must strive to be on the cutting edge in testing for any and all PEDs. Finally, MLB should enact severe penalties for any players found to have used PEDs from this date onward. Any findings of PEDs from this point onward shall be met with immediate suspension from the game for one unpaid season. Any subsequent positive findings will result in expulsion from the game in perpetuity.

This solution levels the playing field, shows that both sides are intent on cleaning up the game, and will inject the public with a sense that their baseball idols are genuinely playing with tools provided through natural talent and hard work. By storing blood samples, players will be unlikely to attempt to find other ways to beat the system, as they know when a test is devised to find such supplements they will be discovered as frauds. Moreover, if baseball is willing to devise the most comprehensive testing system known to the world, players will be too frightened to challenge it.

I don’t care that players cheated in the past, because it is going to be impossible to adequately discover who did what. Instead of pointing fingers we should just sweep it all under the rug and start from scratch. This is the only way to ensure that the game is clean. From that point on, if a player attempts to cheat the game, he will be rightfully and severely punished.

Steroids Part I.

Players and Management: Everyone’s Dirty

We stand on the eve of the steroid armaggedon that has been building since before Jose first plunged a needle into Mark McGwire’s butt. This week the federal government indicted Barry Bonds on Perjury and Obstruction of Justice charges based on his testimony before a grand jury in which he stated he did not use steroids. In less than a month, Major League Baseball will be releasing the Mitchell Report, which supposedly documents the usage of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) by players throughout the sport. This report and the Bonds trial fail to adequately correct the wrongs already perpetrated against the sport and fall well short of providing an answer as to how to pick up the pieces. Basically, why bother with a report when it is clear that everyone has contributed to this mess?

Players
Naturally, this is where the investigation begins and, if MLB has its way, where it will end. Each player who ever took steroids or HGH or whatever other PED they could find is guilty of tarnishing the purity of the game. It was their individual decision to cheat and they should be rightfully tainted for it. However, this simple thinking ignores how universal concerns pushed these people to cheat. Looking closer each player using PEDs did so for much more complex purposes: greed, job security, fame, talent enhancement, peer pressure, career pressure, etc.

I’ve seen it asked at other times, but which of us would ignore the Siren’s call to “rub the clear” on our bodies knowing that to do so could open the door to outrageous fortune and adulation the likes of which average people, like myself, will never know? What about the middle-aged player on the verge of being pushed out of the lime-light who “needs” one more good season to ensure a major league paycheck for his family? What about the minor-league kid who needs that extra bump in performance to get that first taste of major league coffee? Given these scenarios and the myriad of others, who among us could “say no” to PEDs? The allure of playing professional sports is too great to be ignored in this mess, so as much as I dislike the usage of PEDs in sports, I can understand where the desire to use them comes from. From a purely outside perspective we should vilify the players for damaging the sport, but we should also understand there is much more at play than meets the eye.

Management
No group is more complicit in the growth of steroids than the various owners who knowingly turned a blind eye to the situation until it became a national scandal. In essence, this group has it the best. They can claim ignorance to the problem, yet indulge in the immense popularity the steroids era brought to the sport. The game has never been more popular than when the long-ball was sailing out of the park. Fans came out in droves to watch Big Mac, Sammy, and eventually Bonds break single-season records and the all-time home run mark. All the while, owners and management ignored Barry’s ever-growing dome and the Andro found in Big Mac’s locker.

Now these players who received untold riches and fame are being rightfully persecuted for cheating, but the owners and management who must have known about the cheating and received even more wealth face very little public condemnation. Bud Selig gets embarrassed in front of Congress for a couple of hours, while Mark McGwire goes into total seclusion, ostracized from public exposure. Owners continue to get rich and Bonds goes to jail. The owners fed off of players who strove for fame and fortune. Basically, these fortune leeches got all the wealth and none of the responsibility, which is a deal they would make time and time again. Who should we expect more from, the individual players or the architects of our game? After all it was the owners’ implied condonation of this behavior that helped create this mess.

Part II will document what I believe should be done to move the game forward away from the steroid era and its fall-out.

Point/Counter-Point: A-Rod Sign Him or Deny Him (loads of cash)?

BJ you ignorant slut!

You would choose to deprive this power-starved team the opportunity to land the player who will most likely wear the crown of greatest home-run hitter of all time, simply because he has yet to dominate the playoffs, or is not the gregarious, media-charmer that your beloved Kobe is? That is just dumb. I will break this down for you real simple so you understand how this is a no-brainer.

A. The Halos will receive about $30 million from a previously untapped revenue source, MLB.com, which is pouring about that much money into each team’s coffers. This money, which is new money and should be around this amount each year would cover the team for the cost of signing A-Rod. Thus, A-Rod could be signed without the Halos extending beyond what they already took in from last year.

2. I agree that it would be nice to bring in a proven championship caliber player, but look at the success Vlad has brought to the team and he has never won a title and has performed even worse than A-Rod in the postseason. And, the whole A-Rod sucks in the postseason argument is all myth, sham, balderdash, hooey, and crap. While in Seattle, A-Rod played in 15 playoff games had 53 ABs and hit .340 with 3 HRs and 8 RBIs. His first season with NY in the playoffs A-Rod hit .320 with 3 HRs and 8 RBIs. Clearly, he has performed exceptionally well on the big stage and could very well do so again. Basically, he has had just as many exceptional post-seasons as he has bad ones, so the potential is there for him to be dominant again.

Finally, the best part about signing A-Rod is the fact that, although he will cost us a lot of dinero, he will not cost a single prospect. Currently, the Angels are rumored to be in the running for Miguel Cabrera. Undoubtedly, Miggy is talented, young, and fat. The Marlins are looking at picking up top-notch, major league ready talent in exchange for him. According to rumors, the Fish want Howie Kendrick plus either Weaver, Saunders, or Adenhart, plus either Napoli or Mathis or maybe even Brandon Wood. That’s a lot of young, cheap talent to throw to another team in exchange for a player who is eating his way to a Hall of Fame bid from Sizzler. Not to mention, Cabrera will be a free agent in 2010 and will entertain offers merely a notch below those A-Rod is searching for. Whereas, with A-Rod, you shift Brandon Wood to shortstop, keep Howie, keep your young nucleus of starting pitchers and catchers and be a legitimate World Series contender for the next 8 years. I think that would pay for A-Rod.

My Team Did WHAT?!

OK readers, we have all been there before, the GM of our favorite team decides to make a roster change that leaves us the fans completely baffled and enraged saying "Oh no he di'in't!" Whether it is a rookie draft pick that we all know is way too over-hyped (Michael Olowakandi anyone) or a monster trade/free agent acquisition that brings some prima-donna superstar to your team that you absolutely hated watching play before and cannot possible imagine cheering for. Say goodbye to your team's young prospects and hello to higher ticket prices. We have all been in this "glass cage of emotion. The bad man punted baxter!" Sure, it is easy to second-guess and nobody likes monday-morning quarterbacking, BUT some of these things really are no brainers (how does Adrian Peterson slip to #7 in the NFL draft?!) And how come it always seems to be the same GM's making the right moves? Is it simply a case of OVER-thinking much like most fantasy football GMs do every week? Or is there something else going on here? I want each of us to play GM for the day and make a roster decision based on the current big free agent move pending in Major League Baseball right now, Mr. Clean himself, Alex Rodriguez. What do you as fans think of this guy and would you go after him as the GM of your team?

My answer, speaking as the GM for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Orange County or whatever we are called these days, would be a resounding NO. Do NOT go after A-Rod. I repeat, Do NOT SEEK THE TREASURE! Why do I not like him so much? Well, you certainly cannot argue against his business acumen (about to sign the biggest contract in sports history breaking the old MLB record held by, ummm let me think, oh yeah HIM) or his ability to play baseball. Someone is willing to pay him that much money, so he is going after it. Does he value winning and his fit with a team more than making a few more million each season? I think not, and as a business man you cannot fault that reasoning. But as a fan and teammate that does not exactly inspire. And no doubt the guy is a machine at the plate and can play D (as long as he is not in the NY tabloids). BUT he is not a clubhouse guy. He is not a team captain. He is not a leader. In fact, it is his sheer dollar and sense approach to the game that makes his teammates not want to hang with the guy, let alone follow him out on the field. And it has to be hard working with someone that is more worried about getting the right amount of gel in his hair than what's going on in his teammates' lives. The cohesion in the Angels clubhouse is strong, I enjoy watching this group play and I do not think bringing A-Rod in (strictly looking at intangibles) is a good decision.

Working as the GM for a club I think there has to be something said for that one intangible ingredient that you cannot pay for that is absolutely VITAL to a team's success, chemistry. Now don't get me wrong here, I struggled through chemistry in school (but I did learn how to distill my own beer-thank you Mrs Becker) but all athletes have been on teams that have chemistry and teams that simply do not and there is a huge difference. Most of us can even point to lesser successful teams that maybe had MORE talent than other teams but achieved less because the team lacked any chemistry together. Chemistry doesn't necessarily mean all the players have to go to the movies together or throw monday night Jenga parties (although that doesn't hurt, JENGA!) But it is chemistry on the playing field that is crucial, and the addition or subtraction of one or two players here or there can greatly effect that cohesiveness.

And what is the biggest chemistry killer? Egos. The bigger the ego, the greater the tendency for team chemistry to fall by the wayside. And the greater the number of egos the greater the death of team cohesiveness. Are there examples where this is not the case? Yes, but they are the exceptions. You need a special group and a special coach to make it work. And sometimes having just ONE big ego can work because the others can manage to work with it. Those egos have to realize that they NEED their teammates to win and they eventually give in to that fact and value winning a championship over personal accomplishments. The Spurs are a great example of a group of selfless teammates willing to put egos aside for the common goal of winning titles. They have four bona fide superstars in the league and yet they all sacrifice and it starts with Tim Duncan who is not about me but rather about the team. A-Rod in my opinion is not one of those superstars, he wants to sign the biggest contract and put up regular season numbers so that he can sign an even bigger next contract. He is a member of the Wu-Tang financial group, CashRulesEverythingAroundMe.

But enough with the intangibles (which clearly do not favor A-Rod in my opinion) and on to the tangibles of statistics and of course the very tangible salary that he is reportedly asking for. A-Rod had a monster season last year:
AVG .314
HR 54
RBI 156
OBP .422
SLG .645
MVP numbers. And his career stats are off the chart as well, with 11 full seasons played he has already hit over 500 homers and his career average is over .300. Of all baseball players at age 30, he was the first in home runs and runs scored. Can't deny the guys talent, although further analysis of his hitting in post-season play does show some weaknesses, especially over the past few seasons. Since joining the Yankees in 2004, he has hit .244 in the playoffs. And from 2005-07 in the playoffs his average dropped even further to an abysmal .159, hitting just one home-run over those three playoff years. The term CLUTCH does not come to mind when thinking of this guy and analyzing his post-season performance proves that to be true.

Now on to his potential contract, the terms are something in the ball park of $300-350 Million Dollars over the next 10 years. "Why make it millions when it could be billions?" That equates to a yearly salary of $30-35 Million Bones. That per season number is MORE than the combined salaries of 4 ENTIRE TEAM Payrolls last season. For that kind of salary, as a GM I would have to be getting more than just regular season numbers. And I'm sorry but I just don't see A-Rod bringing those intangibles like leadership to the table either. But who knows, maybe he can pitch, and who needs a catcher or outfielders or infielders anyways.
Let me know what you think.

Poll Results

Poll results are officially in and the readers have spoken! Well, sort of anyways. We have a TIE for the greatest sports rivalry of all-time between UCLA vs. USC and Lakers vs. Celtics. West Siiiide! Both of these epic showdowns received 7 votes, or 29% each of the total 24 votes tallied. These storied matchups are rich with history and legendary performances. But let us look forward at some of the upcoming games and see, as Bon Jovi says, if we can make a memory.

The Stats:
The Bruins (121 total team national championships of which 100 are NCAA Titles)
The Trojans (106 total team national championships of which 86 are NCAA Titles)
They meet this year on the football field at the Coliseum on Saturday Dec. 1st. Should be a good one, especially after UCLA upset SC last year on the last game of the regular season knocking them out of the championship bowl game (Ouchie). This rivalry continues to thrive and I expect some highly-competitive Pac-10 BBall games between these cross-town rivals this season as well. Pre-season college basketball rankings have UCLA #2 and USC #18 in the country. Both teams add extremely strong recruiting to their already powerful lineups going into this year (read OJ Mayo and Kevin Love). Get those tivos set to record!

The Stats
Los Angeles Lakers (most NBA Finals appearances (28) and the second most championships (14). The Franchise has only missed the NBA Playoffs 5 times in their 60 year history.)
Boston Celtics (Most NBA Championships (16). Most consecutive NBA Championships (8). The Celtics have faced the Lakers a total of 10 times in the NBA Finals, winning 7 times).
As for the NBA schedule, the Lakers play the Celtics first on Friday Nov 23rd in Boston and then the second time on Sunday Dec 30th in LA. The Lakers have had the advantage over the Celts in the past few years (although neither are near the levels when the rivalry was at it's peak in the 80s) but could there be a shift in dominance this year? I can think of three big reasons why that could be true.
Thanks for voting and remember we at For Love Of The Game always value your opinion... as long as it supports our own.